Call it luck or recklessness, or a combo of both, but a few people risk huge amounts of money on the off chance of a huge win. And it does happen, with some paydays so ridiculously huge they are life changing, turning ordinary people into millionaires in a matter of hours.
A number of the luckiest casino wins of all time have happened to ordinary folks, a lot of them down in their luck. But luck always has a way of surprising everyone, although higher payouts do often come from the larger bets.
Here are 12 stories about a few of the biggest casino winners of all time.
Big casino winnerArchie Karas — Poker and Craps
Called the”king of the casinos,” Archie Karas famously turned $50 to $40 million. Karas was employed as a waiter until he learned about swimming hustling, where he gathered serious riches — to the tune of about $ 1 million. Never afraid of losing, he’d bet, in a single throw of the dice, what many gamblers might earn in a life. While playing card matches in Los Angeles, he won lots of money and was also completely bankrupt on numerous occasions.
It was in December 1992 that Archie began what many believe the best hot streak at the history of gaming. He had just lost $2 million throughout an Los Angeles high-stakes poker game, so he only had $50 to spare. Nevertheless, it was all he had to begin winning big.
Karas began in Binion’s Horseshoe casino at which a friend seen him $10,000 to play high-stakes Razz, a match where the lowest hand wins. He went head-to-head with 15 of the world’s greatest poker players, including Stu Unger, Chip Reese, Johnny Chan and Puggy Pearson. He won millions at poker before winning tens of thousands more at craps, finally coming into ownership of their Horsehoe’s $5,000 processors — worth $11 million. From the time his run ended, he’d won $17 million playing poker and craps at the Horseshoe. Incidentally, he managed to repay the $10,000 loan using 50% interest.
His winning streak continued for over two decades, until he had amassed $40 million. He was able to turn $17 million to $17 million by besting a few of the best poker players at Vegas at seven-card stud. In addition, he earned more than a million dollars playing nine-ball pool. Even the occasional losing streak wasn’t enough to keep him from winning a lot more than he lost.
His winning streak, but did eventually come to a conclusion over a three-week interval in 1995, where he lost $11 million playing matches. In addition, he lost $17 million in baccarat and a second $2 million at poker. He soon lost the remainder of the $40 million — although he was finally able to borrow $40,000 to win back $1 million.
Archie’s luck could have ran out in spectacular fashion, but his phenomenal winning streak stays the stuff of legend, and it’s evidence that anything is possible in gambling.
Elmer Sherwin — Megabucks Slots
In 1989, a man won $4.6 million on a Megabucks slot machine at the Cannery Casino & Hotel in Vegas. His name was Elmer Sherwin, and he beat the odds, not once but twice, on precisely the same slot machine. Some people today consider certain machines lucky. After Sherwin won his $4.6 millionhe continued playing the same machine before he finally won $2.1 million in 2005 at the age of 92, despite the likelihood of winning being estimated at one in fifty million.
Sherwin said he was a fan of Megabucks for a long moment. He thought it would pay off eventually, and that belief sustained him for years before his second win confirmed his instincts. It took 16 years enjoying the slot machine to duplicate his original feat.
Sherwin’s first triumph came on the casino’s opening night, resulting in speculation about how large wins occur on opening nights. But as everyone attempts to explain what cannot be clarified, a mythology arises. People may wonder how to replicate Sherwin’s feat of superhuman luck, but so far, he remains the big winner — twice over.
There are other large winners of Megabucks slots, such as a retired flight attendant that risked $300 in 1998 and won $27.5 million. Such wins could be rare, but they do happen from time to time.
Slots winnerPeter — Online Slots
The honor of winning the largest online gaming payout is a member of a Norwegian gambler by the name of Peter. It may not be his actual name, but this is not what’s important. What’s that he became an online casino winner by playing with a progressive jackpot slot known as Arabian Knights — and it had been the fruit slot machine that made his surprise win potential. His winning series netted him 11.7 million Euros, which interpreted to 38 million Norwegian Krone.
Peter played in the Betsson online casino that features the slogan,”Anything could happen.” Peter might have taken that to heart, and it was a fantastic thing he did.
Mike Ashley – Roulette
Mike Ashley, multi-billionaire proprietor of this Newcastle United Football Club, was already famous when he won 1.6 million pounds in the course of 3 hours in a roulette table at a London casino. His lucky number was 17, and his method of betting focused on each possible mixture of that number. As luck would have it, the roulette ball fell to the 17 slot, turning his initial 480,000 lbs to three times that sum. Ashley retrieved his winnings and called it a day.
The odds of hitting 17 were high. However, Ashley must have understood that even a lucky number rarely strikes twice in a row. Then again, stranger things have occurred. Although in 2011, Ashley dropped one million pounds in the course of two hours. Easy come, easy go.
Sean Connery – Roulette
Sean Connery, aka super spy James Bond, also had enormous fortune betting on the number 17. While at a casino in the Italian Alps, in true Bond style, Connery put his money on 17. He missed the first two times, but about the next spin, the ball found 17. Leaving his winnings there, the croupier spun the wheel. Surprisingly, the ball found that the 17 slot again. What might have been even more surprising, or maybe insane, was the simple fact that Connery once more left his winnings in place. Miraculously, the 17 came up a third time in a row, against odds of 50,000 to 1.
In Bond fashion, Connery coolly collected his winnings of 10,000 lbs, which in today’s market could very well be worth 163,000 pounds.
Curiously, there was a time when”17″ was among the most commonly played numbers in roulette. Not merely did Connery win big on the number 17 in 1963, but he did the same from the 1971 film Diamonds Are Forever.
Even though some have won bundles on the number 17, it does not mean that the rest of us will have the same good luck with that amount. If we have lucky numbers, the challenge is in figuring out them, and they do not always arrive neatly wrapped in fortune cookies.
rouletteCharlie Wells – Roulette
In 1891, Charlie Wells netted $1 million after enjoying roulette for 11 straight hours. He was the guy who literally”broke the bank at Monte Carlo,” inspiring a famous music hall tune by Fred Gilbert. Breaking the bank meant winning more chips than are on the table, and Wells did that not once, but 12 days in the course of the evening.
It ends up Charlie Wells was a famous confidence trickster. After making a gain from a fraudulent creation known as the”musical jump rope,” Wells chose to test his fortune in Monte Carlo. His game of choice was roulette, also it was in the roulette table which Wells took 4,000 francs in processors and turned them into a million francs, winning 23 out of 30 successive spins at a single stage. After winning a thousand francs, he came back to the same casino a year later and won another million francs over the duration of 3 days.
In today’s dollars, his one million francs could be worth well over $20 million.
Luck was not always so kind to Wells, nevertheless, and after collecting more money from those who’d invested in a fuel-saving apparatus he devised for steam boats, he dropped everything at gaming. He spent twenty five years in prison in England for fraud and five years at a French prison until he passed away in 1922, penniless.
Money comes, and cash goes, and for men like Charlie Wells, it was all a part of life’s experience.
William Darnborough – Roulette
William Darnborough hailed from Illinois when he played with blackjack in a Monte Carlo casino, winning half a million dollars over the course of seven years between 1904 and 1911 — that could be a staggering sum in the present market. He had become an expert gambler by playing roulette in the U.S. at illegal casinos operated inside saloons. It was stated that he was a wheel-watcher who could anticipate where the ball might land.
Unlike Wells, however, Darnborough quit playing while he was forward, marrying into nobility and maintaining his fortune.
Don Johnson – Blackjack
Gambler Don Johnson needed a technique when it came to blackjack. He negotiated rules to give himself an edge, such as dividing a positive hand into four separate hands. In addition, he picked dealers who ceased drawing cards when a hands equaled 17, raising Johnson’s odds of having a better hands. Whenever he could, he’d double his bet.
Fortunately for Johnson, a few casinos provide high-rollers 10 percentage paybacks, meaning that he can keep a complete win while still keeping money after a reduction. By also negotiating the best to wager around $25,000 a hand, he was able to multiply his winnings much more quickly.
Though Johnson relied on chance as far as anyone else, his use of these rules left to chance and more to plan, earning him $15 million from three casinos in half a year.
Poker tournament Antonio Esfandiari — Poker Tournament
Already successful as a poker professional, Antonio Esfandiari risked a lot of money at a 2012 WSOP charity poker event — $1 million to be precise. In so doing, he took home the biggest purse in poker history with a total of $18,346,673. Despite 11 percent of the winnings going to charity, Esfandiari netted a staggering fortune.
The triumph brought Esfandiari’s entire championship winnings into $23,245,838, which is the most any player won in poker tournament history.
Ashley Revell — Roulette
Approximately 2003, Ashley Revell sold his home and belongings in London and left for Vegas with approximately $135,000. Revell risked all of it by putting it on red on a roulette wheel in the Plaza Casino in downtown Vegas. He immediately doubled his money and left.
Although Revell wasn’t a gambler, he assumed an enormous risk and won big. He owns iGaming Recruitment that helps staff gaming businesses.
Kerry Packer — Blackjack and Baccarat
Billionaire Kerry Packer could manage to place huge bets. During a 1995 trip to the MGM Grand in Vegas, he won between $20 and $40 million at blackjack and baccarat. Allegedly, Packer played up to eight hands at once on multiple tables, gambling up to $250,000 per hand. 25 minutes following his initial wager, he had won $25 million, finishing $20 million before where he began.
Lady Luck favored Packer on quite a few different occasions from 2010 through 2011. A $5.8 million triumph at the Tropicana Casino took under 12 hours. In addition, he won countless over a variety of nights in the Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa.
However, his luck turned a couple of years later when he lost $28 million at a London casino.
Patricia Demauro – Craps
Using its many gambling options, craps provides players a chance of winning large or losing big. For Patricia Demauro, luck was on her side. She’d only played craps once before, so when she came at the craps table at the Borgata in Atlantic City, she could not have been expecting to win 154 consecutive throws in the course of 4 hours and 18 minutes. Although she never disclosed her winnings, she bought in for a mere $10 and could’ve won thousands of dollars with traditional stakes. If she were placing expert bets, winnings may have been in the millions.
It must be noted that the likelihood of her achievement were 1 in 1.56 trillion, and it happened in one incredible night.
Lady Luck
There are actually enormous casino payouts all the time. For example, an anonymous guy waiting to get a basketball game at the Excalibur Casino won $39 million dollars. A woman seeing Vegas from Hawaii played exactly the exact same slot machine for 3 hours less than $100 before winning close to $9 million. Another girl won $680 on a Wheel of Fortune machine at the Palace Station Hotel, after to acquire $27 million in a Megabucks jackpot. Who says you win has to be sufficient?
A Former owner of the Golden Nugget composed of a video game programmer named Mr. Royalty who walked with near $5 million, only to come back a week later to acquire an extra $1.5 million.
There is even a story of a homeless man who cashed a $400 social security check and turned it into about $1.5 million in the Treasure Island casino. Individuals who observed the guy considered him the rudest and luckiest player they’d ever seen. Sad to say, the guy later lost it before being kicked out.
Want to find out if fortune is on your side? Come see Dover Downs Hotel & Casino! If you play clever and thoughtfully, you never know what might happen.

Read more: https://montanayouthrugby.org/darts-betting-tips/